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Roland "Red Blade" Tallos
Roland "Red Blade" Tallos is known throughout the land as the true leader of Kormaine. Though a council of Ko Rule Kormaine, Roland is the true steel of that city. Roland is also whispered of as a gentleman's highwayman. 'Early Life' Roland never dreamed he would be famous. He was only the son of a butcher and a butcher was all he planned to be. He was satisfied with his lot in life and would have become a familiar face in the town. When he turned fifteen he began to apprentice under his father and worked hard to impress him. Roland was a smart lad and capable besides and so he learned his trade quickly. One day he accompanied his father to town to sell their meats and had a particularly productive morning. They sold everything quickly and for a decent price. In celebration they headed to a nearby tavern. The father and son drank well into the night and decided to stay in the town. Late in the evening they spied a young woman in the tavern and his father encouraged him to chase after her. He spoke to the young lass and enjoyed her company. After he offered to walk her home and she agreed. Roland walked the young lady home and she gave him a chaste kiss goodnight. He walked back to the inn with his head in the clouds. This would prove to be his undoing. Roland was waylayed on the way home by crimpers with a drugged hood. As the sweet smelling concoction rubbed on the lining of the hood pervaded his senses he passed into unconciousness. Roland awoke on board a ship and in chains. He was chained below decks to man the oars. He was whipped and beaten and used mercilessly. He rowed the oars for two years before he recieved his salavation. Rowing for so long had given him strength. When a pirate ship overtook the merchant vessel the slave master and guards unchained the slaves. They gave them weapons and commanded them to defend the ship. Roland saw only red. He grabbed the blade and cut the slave master from groin to sternum. His intestines spilled to the floor before he knew what had happened. They thought they had beaten him into submission. They had only been beating steel until it hardened into this. He cut a swath through the men and guards on his way to the top of the galley. What he lacked in training he made up for in strength and hatred. He cared not for the small cuts and bruises he sustained. He only had one mission in mind. To kill the man responsible for this. He killed the bosun and the guards alike and he reached the captains quarters only to find the doors barred. He used his sword to begin hacking at the doors. That is where the pirates found him. They stood in awe of this crazed man. Blood ran in rivulets down his chest and his hair was a sodden mass of blood and viscera. One of the pirates tried to force him out of the way and found himself without a head. Several of the men subdued him and wanted to kill him but the Pirate captain stopped them. The Pirate captain was impressed with his ferocity and strength. After they retrieved the merchant captain Doran they questioned him thoroughly. Then they gave him to Roland. When the ship was burning in the distance the Pirate captain offered Roland a place on the ship as a deckhand. Roland accepted and spent the next ten years aboard the ship. He worked his way up from deckhand to first mate. He spent his shares and coin on learning everything from reading and writing to swordplay. He hired swordmasters and learend their ways and slowly became a master swordsmen himself. He made his blades sing and enemies fell like so much wheat before the scythe. 'Adult Life' Roland was offered command of the ship for the day when the captain decided to leave the life of pirating. But to everyones surprise he declined. He said that he only traveled the seas while he owed the Pirate captain his life. Instead he would make his way on land. William bid him farewell and said that his life was now his own and the debt was well paid. Roland left William with his debts paid and enough gold in his purse to buy a lordship. Roland was accompanied by several shipmates and they departed in Silver City. They made their way west towards Kormaine and set up shop out of the deep woods as Highway men. They became known as the Blade Cloaks. Roland became known as Roland "Red Blade" Tallos and he was succesful as can be. He robbed merchant prince caravans and became rich off their fat. He used the money to buy homes and buildings in Kormaine and rented them cheaply to families so that they might have a place to stay the winters. His only rule is to improve the place they were given. If they ruined it, he would ruin them. He drove the other criminals out of the city and succesfully fended off Luthien Crask and his criminal enterprise. Roland is fond of saying, "I am not a great man, I am not a good man. I am merely a man. And a Man must do as he needs." Back To "Characters"